A complaint we hear when the economy is booming is, “We attract great people. But our best and brightest become disillusioned and eventually go off in search of other opportunities.” All too often, leaders don’t leverage the talent they have in their teams. These teams operate at a deficit—equal to or less than the sum of its parts. As a result, the best people leave.
Here are 2 things you can do right away to leverage talents, increase performance, and raise retention rates on a team:
Create A Culture of Growth
Top performers want to grow. They leave their jobs when they don’t feel like they are growing fast enough! Teams of distinction make it a habit to give each other feedback. This feedback helps team members grow. They don’t wait for the leader to tell them to improve. They do it themselves because they know it will help the team and each member individually—a true win/win!
Team Tactic: To prepare, have everyone on your team write a list. For each person on the team, write down one thing they are doing that is helping the team excel and one thing that is getting in the way. Set up a meeting to share this feedback. Starting with you, the leader, share the items you wrote down. Then have each person share their items. Listen and be open. Take notes. This could take 10-20 minutes per person. When everyone has shared their items, have each person declare a commitment to improve. Watch performance and retention soar!
Create More Personal Connections
Teams of distinction move beyond business and create personal connections. This is the oil that lubricates efforts. It is also the glue that keeps people on teams.
Top teams don’t just settle for a recap of the weekend. They learn about what makes each other tick, how each member performs best, and how to work together. Here is a simple way to start this new approach.
Team Tactic: Set up a 60-minute meeting. Have team members pair up and take a 30-minute walk. While walking, they are to talk to one another about the moments in their career that shaped who they are, what they do, and how they prefer to operate. When the pairs come back, have each person present to the team something they learned about their partner. We have done this with dozens of teams from dozens of countries. It sounds simple, but surprisingly it has a profound effect on how team a connects and how team members relate and respond to each other going forward.